1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to evacuation travelling control devices and methods relating to emergency evacuation control technology capable of providing warning and emergency information to drivers of other vehicles, pedestrians, etc. around an own vehicle during an evacuation travelling mode when an emergency situation occurs in the own vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In evacuation travelling control technology is widely known, the driver of an own vehicle turns on an emergency evacuation travelling switch when an emergency situation occurs in the own vehicle on a roadway such as a highway. That is, the evacuation travelling control switches a vehicle drive mode to an evacuation travelling mode when the driver of the own vehicle turns on the emergency evacuation travelling switch in order to move the own vehicle to a safe place, and provides an emergency warning to drivers of other vehicles and pedestrians around the own vehicle. In the evacuation travelling mode of the own vehicle, the vehicle speed is gradually reduced and the own vehicle is guided to a safe place such as a shoulder lane and a parking lane, etc. in order for the own vehicle to stop safety in the safe place, without causing a traffic accident.
For example, a patent document 1, Japanese patent No. JP 5494182, has disclosed a conventional evacuation travelling control capable of instructing the overall lamps including direction indicators mounted on an own vehicle to blink simultaneously in order to provide warning to drivers of other vehicles and pedestrians around the own vehicle.
When detecting an emergency situation, the conventional evacuation travelling control technology uses turn signal indicators mounted on a vehicle as hazard lamps during the evacuation travelling mode. This provides emergency warning information to the drivers of the other vehicles, pedestrians, etc. around the own vehicle. However, it is difficult for the conventional evacuation travelling control technology to provide the evacuation direction of the own vehicle to drivers of the other vehicles, and pedestrians.
The conventional evacuation travelling control technology uses the turn signal indicators to indicate the evacuation direction of the own vehicle during the evacuation travelling mode, and drivers of other vehicles and pedestrians around the own vehicle can recognize the evacuation direction of the own vehicle. However, this conventional technique cannot correctly provide occurrence of the emergency state of the own vehicle to drivers of the other vehicles and pedestrians around the own vehicle.